Dozens of blind and visually impaired students ranging from age 5 to 21 from Allerton’s The New York Institute for Special Education (NYISE) took part in a march to celebrate White Cane Day on Tuesday, Oct. 15. October also marks Disability Awareness Month.

 

White Cane Day celebrates the achievements of people who are blind or visually impaired and originated in 1964. The marchers began at the Institute before crossing Pelham Parkway and walking down Williamsbridge Road to Lydig Avenue and concluded the route by returning to the Institute. One student said, “We use our white canes to help us go where we’re going.”

 

Alexandra Haley, an orientation mobility instructor at the NYISE, said “A white cane is an essential tool to give anybody who uses it the ability to achieve a full and independent life. It allows you to move freely and safely from place to place whether at work, school, or around your neighborhood.”

Haley told the Norwood News, “This is about educating the community, a way to celebrate, to break stereotypes that people might have of people who are visually impaired or blind. The cane is a tool for them to use to become more independent or be able to travel more safely, independently.”

 

She continued, “We just want to let the world know people who are visually impaired, or blind, are very capable, can be independent, are very smart, and can live life just like anybody else. We want to educate the public because people don’t know when they see that cane, what it represents.”

 

Haley said the march has been a tradition for over 20 years. Assemblyman Michael Benedetto (A.D. 82), who broadly represents the Northeast Bronx and who is chair of the education committee at NYS Assembly, attended the march and told Norwood News he felt it was important for him to be there in part because of his background as a teacher.

“I taught for 35 years, and for 27 of [them] I did it in special education, so special education is near and dear to me. I know the plight of these children and what they have to go through, and every day is basically learning how to cope with their disability, and go on trying to live a normal life,” said Benedetto.

 

He continued, “Schools like this have been notoriously underfunded for years. I think that it’s important that I show that maybe times have changed, and maybe we can do more for them.”

 

After the march concluded, students returned to the Institute where they had a pizza party. Each class decorated their classroom door in celebration of White Cane Day and a vote was held by students to determine which doors they enjoyed the most.

In 2011, White Cane Safety Day was also named Blind Americans Equality Day by former U.S. President Barack Obama.

 

NYISE held its annual “Trike-a-Thon” on May 15 to raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Manhattan. Meanwhile, on Oct. 8, Marvel’s Daredevil actor Charlie Cox paid a visit to NYISE. Daredevil is a blind superhero, and Cox spoke on the importance of representation for visually impaired persons in movies.